Two US servicemen were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of gang-raping a Japanese woman in Okinawa, reports said, as anti-American feeling runs high on the strategically vital island.

The incident comes amid swelling protests over the recent deployment on the island of 12 Osprey transport aircraft, with the plane’s perceived poor safety sparking concern among local residents.

…One of sailors admitted carrying out the attack, but the other has denied it, according to TV Asahi.

Tens of thousands of US troops have been stationed in Japan since WWII, and the local population has been firmly against the occupation with frequent protests urging their removal. Up to 85% of the Okinawan population wants US troops out. Not only do they not want to be occupied by a foreign military, but they’re fed up with the outrageous behavior of the American Marines. Between 1972 and 2009, there were 5,634 criminal offenses committed by US servicemen, including 25 murders, 385 burglaries, 25 arsons, 127 rapes, 306 assaults and 2,827 thefts.

Japanese leaders can’t submit to the will of the people on this issue for obvious reasons: the mafia don in Washington won’t allow it. “In 2010, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama pledged to relocate the U.S. base, then backtracked under US pressure,” reports the Washington Post. “Outraged Okinawans staged public protests, demonstrations spread to Tokyo, Hatoyama’s approval rating plummeted to 25 percent and he resigned.”

The Post continues:

Opposition to the U.S. base at Okinawa has been a big deal in Japan for years. “Local newspapers in Okinawa, which are strongly anti-base, give intense coverage to crimes by American military personnel and their families,” the New York Times explained. It’s also about the base itself, which is in the middle of a dense residential neighborhood and surrounded by schools. The recent arrival of new American aircraft, the tiltrotor V-22 Osprey, which locals believe is too dangerous, provoked “unexpectedly fierce opposition.” And maybe it shouldn’t be surprising that this historically nationalist society isn’t crazy about an enormous foreign military presence on its soil.

The bases in Japan were some of the most important Far East outposts in the American Empire in the years following WWII, and they’ve retained their geo-political importance to those in Washington who demand having military bases the world over. But the bases in Japan have garnered renewed importance since President Obama announced his strategic pivot to Asia-Pacific. The base now serves as an important show of force to China, a country on the rise economically and militarily, which Washington wants desperately to contain.

1674541 Responseshttp%3A%2F%2Fantiwar.com%2Fblog%2F2012%2F10%2F17%2Fus-soldiers-arrested-for-gang-raping-japanese-woman-near-okinawa-base%2FUS+Soldiers+Arrested+for+Gang-Raping+Japanese+Woman+Near+Okinawa+Base2012-10-17+14%3A31%3A52John+Glaserhttp%3A%2F%2Fantiwar.com%2Fblog%2F%3Fp%3D16745 to “US Soldiers Arrested for Gang-Raping Japanese Woman Near Okinawa Base”

You droped the most coward off all weapons on his heads, a Atomic bomb, in a pacific town ( 2 towns in fact), and NOW you say that " they are not sailors"??? GET OUT of other countrys, Americans. Its ebough

shouldn’t be surprising that this historically nationalist society isn’t crazy about an enormous foreign military presence on its soil. Max Fisher should be so kind as to point to more domesticated folks who would simply love it…

Antonio, you talk about cowards and weapons and are Italian? Italy dropped poison gas on Ethiopia. Italy killed a civilian population that wasn't even at war and had now way to defend themselves. The USA dropped two atomic bombs to end the war and save a million American lives and three times as many Japanese lives. The Italians were allied with fascist Japanese. Italy is guilty of 50 million killed in the West since Italy empowered Hitler, you hypocrite. Italy help start the war, America ended it.

I lived in Japan for 3 years and I can tell you that it's true that most Okinawans DETEST the US military presence there. Part of the problem is that they are ethnically different from the other "mainland" Japanese who make up the vast majority of the population and hold power. But I was surprised at the huge number of crimes committed by the foreign troops.

Left out of all major media outlets, including anti-war, is that Okinawa is still under the terms imposed upon Japan at end of WWII.
Under that agreement Only by mutual agreement can Japan take full control of Okinawa. The treaty.last modified did not change that status.
In other word Japan has only nominal control of all Okinawas Island chain and cannot deny Whatever US wants to do there.
US controls (owns) just about 18% of the best lands on main island and is now displacing more than 20,000 more native Islanders in order to increase its base sizingWhat latest uprosr before rapes is that the US is now militarizing all the smaller Islands and stationing the planes they have for the short runways already inder construction.
The native populace will no longer be allowed to land upon them. This is a bad blow for their native fisheties ad many have non permanent docks and use them as shelter ports and freshwater etc gathering places.
Check out the treaty laws and see just how US has indeed conwuered and holds onto Japanese or realy Okinawan lands.
Another bone of contention is US militarys policy of dumping fuel before landing. This is carcinogenic and contaminated the soils surrounding those airstrips makung highest rate of cancer anywheres in that area of world.
Wave the flag but pretend it still stands for something other than jigh crimes and misdmeanors.

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH PLEASE JOHN……… Can we Please dispense with this pap…!!! strategically vital…??? Vital..???… Please tell your gentle readers HOW this particular speck of "Japanese Soil" is (specifically) strategic and I'll let you go on the, in my opinion t preposterous "vital"..
The only purpose I see in the American presence in Okinawa, is to keep the American HEEL planted firmly in the kisser of Japan… which I don't see as "vital" and certainly not strategic.. Where does the U.S. military find so many rapist to deploy there..?? It must be some awesome undertaking…….. combing Rednecklandia for just the right combination of inebriety, thrift (too cheap to buy a prostitute) and wanton indifference to consequences…..!! I asked my sister who spent years married to a loser in the Air Force, who was shuffled round the world for years…. Why Okinawa…….. Why 37.OOO troops there…. Her reply: Great golfing and superb prostitutes…. Has anyone considered that aspect of the equation in their strategic formulations…??? How many more of these rapes can the U.S. get away with before the people of that island bring the curtain down and make the U.S. base there untenable…???

You repeat the same old canard which would not stand in any honest debate. The A bombings were motivated for two reasons keen to Truman and his administration: 1) revenge bloodlust against anything Japanese, even civilians (to get votes); and 2) political desire to intimidate the Soviet Union (goal of ruling political class).
Were you the least bit aware that Japan, thru 3rd party intermediaries, earlier that summer had already offered terms of surrender which involved total surrender of their armed forces to US control and occupation of their country by US forces? And that the US turned that offer down, because it preferred mass murder to anything that seemed conciliatory?
Were you the least bit aware that Japan then, like now, starves without imported food, and cannot power so much as a lawn mower without imported oil, and could not build a lawn chair without imported iron ore, and, by summer 1945 were totally surrounded and blockaded by US air and naval forces and could not have gotten any of these materials and were doomed, even if no bombing or invasion, to abysmal bronze-age living conditions?
Were you not the least bit aware that the Soviet Union had declared war on an already prostrate and beaten Japan just days before the bombings and had totally destroyed Japan's army in Manchuria and were preparing to invade the northern islands, maybe before the risk-averse US had had a chance to invade Honshu?
Were you not aware that BOTH MacArthur and Eisenhower opposed the bombings? Do you think that if there were any legit military justification, that they would have taken those positions?

this is STILL an ALLEGED sexual assault of a woman by US Sailors NOT Soldiers. Why set a restriction on all personnel when this is still an ALLEGED INCIDENT? I understand the position of the people who have to set the rules however all the incidents that have happened have occured for the most part in OKINAWA from people who are not stationed here. From the mainland there is NO HISTORY of these incidents occuring from the US Army. LOCK DOWN THE MARINES AND SAILORS.

I'm pretty sure that there are in eality many more rapes on Japanese women. Its probably a small percentage of women who come forward with that, especially in Japan.
And the most disgusting fact is, that US soldiers are never really prosecuted for their crimes, also here in germany! Here in germany they cannot even be prosecuted by German courts and usually are just moved to another place.
This can only change when the US is loosing a bloody war on its own terrirory and I'm tempted to wish that.

Wolfgang (how I love that name!) and all the other Yankee-haters out there. U.S. troops do not "occupy" Okinawa. They are there under a treaty with the Japanese government. In fact, we took Okinawa away from Japan after the war; we conquered it and were nice enough to give it back. As for the Okinawans, they should be thankful we did not just pack them off to Japan. The U.S. presence in Okinawa is one of the things making China think twice about stomping on Japan and the Japanese know it. That is why we are still there. As for crimes by U.S. military personnel, yes, they happen, in Germany, Japan and in the U.S. Of course, Wolfie, German troops would never behave that way. You ungrateful kraut, we could have erased Germany from the map but we saved you from your own sins after you plunged the world into a ghastly war. Of course a leftist twit like you would have loved living under the Stasi and having Soviet troops rape your sisters. I believe the U.S. should remove its troops from most places in the world and I do not defend the stupid policies of our government in places like Iraq, but knee-jerk anti-Americans like you make me vomit.

However, the terms "servicemen" and "troops" can apply to anyone in the military.

Therefore, the headline implies the alleged rapists are in the Army, while the 3rd graf of the quoted article says they're in the Navy.

Back in the '80s a way-cool newspaper was published whose target audience was enlisted personnel. I always enjoyed reading it because it didn't automatically toe the Pentagon's party line. Its name was "SSAM" (short for "Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Marine").

I'm very sorry,Chuck, there would be so much to say,
but unfortunately I do not have the time due to more important involvements.
Only so much: yes, I think "status quo" would be better for the overwhelming majority of
people, even for most people in the USA, but unfortunately, "status quo" seems not to be a stable social state.
To call me a Leftist is somehow funny and I will bragg about that to a few of my friends,
who have been in East german prisons and now have similar opinion as I do.
Since that development what happened during the last 20+ years was not that what
we really wanted. But there are still ways tio change that.
If you think you could rely on afew US friendly german politicians (that moral crap in the Atlantikbruecke) that you may have one day some bad awakenings since such people can change their minds faster than you would be able to draw your sixshoot:-)

and just one more thing here:
You would probably also call Alaxander Solzhenitsyn a"Leftist" or "Communist"
just because he was able to judge your countries politics and left for his own country
without having been used by your politicians.
That sheds some light about your kind of discussion quality which is basically inuendo.

You really have sucked down the WW2 propaganda haven't you. As has been noted the bombs did not in fact end the war with Japan since Truman already had terms of surrender. He declined that surrender, bombed them, then accepted the very same terms. FDR forced the Japanese into war when he waged economic war on Japan for a purpose. To make them attack the US and garner the public's support for entering the war. Finally, the US didn't end the war (if you mean WW2 as a whole). The US may have helped but ultimately it was Russia that kicked Germany's ass with a ton of help from GB and all the other countries involved. The US didn't win WW2 we were simply on the winning side but you go ahead and keep tossing your jingoistic propaganda out there so the rest of us can feed upon your ignorance.

"You ungrateful kraut, we could have erased Germany from the map but we saved you from your own sins after you plunged the world into a ghastly war."
I suggest you should read Anthony Sutton's "WALL STREET AND THE RISE OF HITLER " or Charles Higham's "Trading With the Enemy", "Banking With Hitler" and about UNION BANKING CORPORATION and Prescott Bush to understand better who is to share blame for WW2 atrocities…

yeah unfortunately it's that whole SOFA agreement thing that needs to be updated. all the red tape from all the levels of the military doesn't help either. it takes such a long time for our legal system to get anything done but at the same time if you just lock someone up for a couple of years that didn't do anything you destroyed their life. the japanese have been known to lock up people for more than 10 years for a crime they didn't commit then deport them to whatever country they are from without any sort of sorry. there has be a medium in between. we cannot tell them what to do yet we don't want them to tell us what to do.

And how different the geopolitical landscape would be today had Britain and the US allied with Germany (as it originally desired) to fight the Communist threat from the Soviet Union? Had the USSR been crushed from the start much of the unfortunate events of that period might not have happened, and certainly we could have avoided the entire Cold War. Granted, give the portrayal of events of that time an alliance with Germany is near heretical, but when looked at objectively and judging it by the circumstances on the ground in Europe at that time, it actually would have made more sense. Alas, hindsight is better than foresight, and thus we have reaped the dubious bounty of our nations' actions so long ago.

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These types of incidents prove that the earth is going to be destroyed completely by an evil force very soon. The duty of soldiers is to protect the people and their country from enemies. But here, the situation is upside-down. They itself acted as the enemy. Did they got angry because of the pearl harbor attack?

I live in the US, but I think we're pretty much fail as a nation that value liberty, justice, and peace. We could use a good government reform. Maybe stay the F*ck out of other countries business, or just in general stay out of other countries. The US people could barely stand on their own, and yet our government spend too much money on trying to make them look good over seas by fighting the so called "war on terrorism".